The unpredictability of navigating a pandemic as a global industry has become… predictable. New challenges come with every variant, leaving the supply chain scrambling to find solutions that keep their stakeholders safe and their shelves stocked.
These challenges have fundamentally changed the industry, whether it’s movement towards virtual work, increased consumer sensitivity to health hazards, or managing with limited resources. Most recently, the challenge of a constrained workforce due to Omicron has presented a new round of adjustments that need to be made.
When it comes to change, there has been plenty of industry chatter about modernization after the FDA’s blueprint for A New Era of Smarter Food Safety was released, detailing work to bring food safety culture into the modern era. In the recall space, Section 2.6 of the blueprint was an especially important step forward, showing commitment to work towards faster and easier recall compliance and increased consumer safety.
Modernizing food safety practices and the recall process through leveraging technology is vital. The benefits of digitalization, cloud based services, etc. go beyond efficiency. Technology connects us. Never before have we had the opportunity to interface on a global scale with speed and ease. The interconnectedness of the supply chain may create challenges – like the way my problems become your problems – but can also be the path to better solutions.
In the case of a constrained workforce, leveraging the strength of an interconnected supply chain means making changes that allow processes to be replicated automatically without sacrificing the standard. By way of example, our system allows a single person to quickly enter recall data and send it to all affected parties. It doesn’t take specialized knowledge or skills to be able to do this. It is a process that’s repeatable and duplicatable – so if the recall manager is out with Covid, they can either do it from home in minutes or pass it to someone else with ease.
More than anything, the last few years have proven the adaptability and innovation of the whole supply chain. We are building towards a stronger future. This year, as the challenges persist, we can keep our sights set on what we are moving towards – an integrated supply chain that works together for the protection of everyone.
